A Picture Says How Many Words
by Annastesia LaFayette
Summary: *Banter* Trip and Malcolm are trapped in Trip's quarters as they have drinks and talk about Lorian and T'Pol.


**A/N:** _During the airng of the series I don't recall that they ever said Trip's middle name. I did read on an fan site somewhere that his middle name is Patrick. For my story though I have changed it to something that seems to make a little more sense (to me anyways). Enjoy._

**A Picture Says How Many Words?**

Trip was in his quarters looking at a framed picture of his sister Lizzy. He turned the picture over and pulled off the back of the frame and took out the two pictures hidden there.

It was forbidden for him to have these pictures. The pictures were evidence of two people who should have never existed. One picture was of him smiling while standing next to a tall Vulcan/human man. His son, Lorian. The other picture was of him looking down at the baby he was holding. His daughter, Elizabeth.

He rubbed his hand across the two pictures as if he could actually touch the faces of his children. Children that the universe put into his path before snatching them away from him. His door chime rang.

Trip hurried to put the pictures back into their hiding place before putting the frame neatly back on the shelf, revealing only the one picture of his sister. He answered the door.

Malcolm stood on the other side. "Commander, I wanted to talk to you about an idea of upgrading the response time of the weapons systems."

"Ok. Come in." Trip gestured for Malcolm to enter.

As Malcolm went into the room he looked at Trip. "Is everything ok, Commander? You look... Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I was just..." He looked over at the picture of Liz.

Malcolm followed his gaze. "Oh. I see. If this is a bad time, we can talk later."

"No. It's ok. We can talk now. Get my mind off of things. Wha'cha got?"

Malcolm handed Trip a PADD. Before he could get a word out, there was a loud explosion, the ship shook knocking the picture frame to the floor, and the lights went dim.

Trip went to his wall panel and tapped a button. "Tucker to engineering. Report." Nothing. He tapped another button. "Tucker to bridge." Nothing. He tapped again. "Tucker to anyone. Are you copying?" Nothing. Malcolm tried to get a hold of someone with his hand communicator but didn't have any luck either. "Comms must be down." Trip said as he went to the door and hit the button to open it. Nothing.

Trip pulled the covering off of the panel with the intent to override the lock, only to be greeted with a shower of sparks. He looked at the wiring. "Ah! Damn systems fried!" He pounded on the door. "Hey! Anyone out there? Hey! Hey! We're stuck in here...anyone?" Nothing.

Malcolm looked worried. "Do you think we were attacked?"

"Naw. If we was attacked, there would be more than one explosion. We'd been gett'n beat on right now. Naw. Three to one says we popped a relay somewhere and fried some of the circuits. Damn Cap'n. I keep tell'n him not to push my ship so hard."

Malcolm cracked a grin. "_You're_ ship?"

"Damn right _my_ ship! Every time that fly-boy pushes the systems to the limits, who do ya think has to pull the injectors, replace relays, adjust the coils-"

"Ok! Ok! I get it...it's you're ship." Malcolm chuckled.

"Well...looks like we're gonna be stuck here for the time being. Wet your whistle? Got some good whiskey last time we went back to Earth."

Malcolm licked his lips. "Sounds like a good plan to me, sir."

As Trip went for the bottle, Malcolm picked the frame up off of the floor. The back cover fell off and the two hidden pictures fell out. Malcolm picked them up and looked at them. Trip felt sick to his stomach. "Ya gonna tell the Cap'n?"

Malcolm handed the pictures to him. "Tell him what? I didn't see anything."

"Thanks Mal." He handed the drink to him.

As they sat drinking, Malcolm asked. "Do you mind if I ask you a question about Lorian?"

"I guess not. Go ahead."

"Well...everyone assumed that if you were to have a son, you'd name him after yourself. Charles the fourth. So...why Lorian?"

Trip chuckled. "I did name him after me. Charles Lorian Tucker the fourth."

"Your middle name is Lorian?"

"Yeah. Don't spread it around though. I never really liked it that much. I asked Lorian about it. He said when he was growin' up we called him Charlie but, as he got older he thought the name sounded too childish and that Charles was too stiff. He decided to go by Lorian."

"Do you think he, and the other Enterprise, are still out there somewhere?"

"I don't know. I like to think so. Tell ya a secret? Sometimes I search through databases to see if there's any reports of a ship matching, or confused for Enterprise. So far I haven't found any. But yeah. I like to think he's still out there somewhere."

"You know...according to Lorian, you're supposed to marry T'Pol. Ever given that any thought?"

Trip eyed Malcolm for a moment. Then without a word went to his nightstand, opened a drawer and came back with a small box. He handed it to Malcolm.

Malcolm opened the box to reveal a ring. It was an intertwined heart with two stones. One a blue sapphire and the other a green emerald. "Is this an engagement ring?"

"Yeah. The sapphire is for Earth, me. And the emerald is for Vulcan, her."

"When do you plan to propose?"

"I don't know. Had the ring for a little over a year now."

"What!? Why? What's stopping you?"

Trip sighed. "I have it all planned out. Y'know...in my head. I'll make her dinner. All her favorite dishes. Candlelight. Soft romantic music. Get down on one knee..."

"Well?"

"Guess I'm afraid she'll give me that cold stare and tell me all this just been an experiment in human relationships and that I'm noth'n more than a guinea pig to her."

"Oh come on Commander!" Malcolm howled in disbelief. "She wouldn't have stayed with you for this long if it was an experiment. You're just trying to chicken out."

Trip took the ring back from Malcolm. "Maybe. I mean...I do love her but...she scares me sometimes. I mean...sometimes I don't know if she's comin' or if I'm goin'. I don't know. I get confused with her sometimes."

"Of course you get confused with her. That's the way Vulcans like us to be...confused. Look. If you don't put that ring on her finger real soon...well...I'll have no other choice but to take her from you. She really does have a nice bum you know."

"Yeah. I know... Hey! Stop look'n at her bum!"

Malcolm laughed. "I will. As soon as you put that ring on her finger."

Trip rolled his eyes as he poured more drinks. He looked at the bottle. They were doing a good job at emptying it.

It had been a few hours and Trip's door slid open. Trip and Malcolm were passed out in their chairs as a hand picked up the now empty bottle. The hand then picked up the small box and returned it to its drawer in the bedside table. Next the hand went to remove the glass from Trip's clenched fingers. That woke Trip up.

Trip looked up, bleary eyed. "Cap'n?"

"Looks like you and Malcolm tied on a good one." Archer said.

"Ugh. I guess we did. What happened?"

"Blew a relay on C deck."

"Ok. I'm on my way to fix it."

"Kelby already took care of it. Comms are back up too. Got your door fixed as well. Nothing left for you to do but sleep it off."

"Sounds like a good plan Cap'n. And would ya _please_ stop push'n my ship so hard?" Without another word, Trip passed out again.

Archer shook his head. "_You're_ ship?" Then he pulled out two blankets and covered both Trip and Malcolm. Before leaving the room he stopped and picked up the picture frame and popped off the back cover. He took the two pictures out and looked at them for a moment. "You know. For the two of you being in his life so briefly, you sure made a huge impact." He put the pictures back in their hiding place and put the frame on its shelf.

**End.**


End file.
